Chewton Glen Hotel - an Iconic Luxury Hotel

Staying just one night in one of the lovely Croquet lawn rooms gave us 2 full days at the CG and we made full use of it. Coffee outside followed by 9 hole golf in the morning, spa in the afternoon with buffet lunch, tour of the kitchen gardens, champagne on our ground floor terrace and then dinner in the main dining room, and that was just the day we arrived. Huge breakfast the next day followed by putting on the croquet lawn, spa with buffet lunch again and a walk down to the sea. Although obviously the CG is not cheap, I thought that it was very good value as there was so much to do. Although I'm not sure about the changes to the lounges, it still has an overall luxurious feel and all of the staff are very well trained and give excellent and friendly customer service. Charging my EV car for free was also a nice touch as were the water and fudge when we finally checked out and the goodies in the room. We were delighted with our early check-in and late check out and our upgraded room was fantastic. Of course I am sure I could be nitpicking and mention some minor negatives but the overall experience was as good as it gets and we can't wait to go back again a few months. Not sure we would eat in the main dining room next time, perhaps we will try the Kitchen.

Travelled over from Isle of Wight for a very special afternoon tea but once welcomed we were shown into a beaitiful but stiflingly hot seating area which had no air no roof blinds and inefectual roof fans. After a few minutes we asked to move outside under massive sun shades (thanks Rosie) and service began. Honestly it was very slow but very professional and slick. Choices were very standard cakes were a little dry but the scones were excellent. Again Rosie did her very best to look after us. The views were amazing and the grounds stunning £120 for two people excluding drinks but including service charge is a pretty heavy price for the product we bought.

Afternoon tea was incredible, we came here to celebrate a family retirement. We had 6 adults and 4 children under the age of 10. The kids afternoon tea was amazing which they loved. In our group we also had a gluten and dairy allergy individual and wow they certainly catered well for this, was the best afternoon tea experienced for someone with allergies, was Incredible. The grounds are beautiful, staff were incredible, friendly and passionate to provide a great service. Staff interacted with the kids which was great. I 100% recommend a visit.

The Chewton Glen Hotel is luxury personified. The grounds are beautifully maintained. Attention to detail is superb. Staff were wonderful. We had a lovely Afternoon Tea here, and as it was Mother’s Day, giving each mother a single, beautifully presented rose was a lovely, thoughtful touch. Yet, when booking, it asked if there were any dietary requirements, and although I put pescatarian/vegetarian, we were still served chicken and ham sandwiches. In addition, having guests, who are staying at the hotel, walking in and out through the room in their dressing gowns and slippers was slightly odd. I overheard someone regard it as “entitled”. More so, one song that played, called Paul Kee by Malia [i Shazamed] kind of disrupted the tranquility, as it sounded eery/creepy.

Amazing hotel grounds, wonderful staff, incredible walled garden and wonderful breakfast. All five star. What was not to like.. well our room - Room 56 - was in desperate need of a full refurb. with furniture and shower room showing clear signs of wear and tear. Not helped by the fact that on arrival the balcony door windows had greasy toddler fingerprints, and the black radiator had a thick layer of dust. The room was more akin to 3 star.

We have been lucky enough to stay at some very special 5 star hotels in recent years, including a number of Leading Hotels of the World and Relais and Chateaux properties, so we were really looking forward to finally staying at CG. I’m saddened to report that we were left disappointed and underwhelmed by our experience and there was so few areas that stacked up against the competition. We found the hotel, its grounds, the spa and food all below our expectations and lacking against recent stays elsewhere. It is fair to say that CG is a lovely hotel and I appreciate that my review will cover a number of small issues but it’s simply because there were too many niggles and entirely avoidable mistakes for us, given its price point, which seems to be a lack of attention to detail evident throughout. We were surprised to find ourselves self parking and walking our luggage around to the reception area but received a lovely, warm welcome on arrival and our coats and bags were swiftly whisked away. We were able to charge our EV, which was great, although we did start off trying to use a broken charge point at the far left end of the car park where the cover fell off as we tried to plug in, with all the wires visible, which was rather alarming. We were directed to the spa area, which we could use whilst we waited for our room to be ready from 3pm - we were told that they would come and tell us when the room was available but this didn’t go to plan and we ended up asking, as 3pm approached, to find that it was ready. The spa area was hugely busy and there were lots of reserved loungers, with no one using them for long periods and nothing being done by the staff to free them up. It left us without a lounger for our 3 hour visit on the Saturday which was frustrating and not the relaxing start we had expected. The outdoor “hot tub” was lukewarm with groups progressively trying it for a few moments before retreating back inside from the cold weather, as did we. We were also disappointed that there is no sauna available for a couple to use together, with the saunas being in the separate changing rooms. On Sunday the towels were not being restocked in the spa - as we were leaving, I let the girls on the reception know but they looked on the camera and told me there were a few (about 6!) so I explained it was the other side of the hydrotherapy area and you’re getting out of the shower with nothing there to dry yourself and she said the camera doesn’t show that section! I’m not sure why they felt the need to challenge what I was telling them as I was just trying to be helpful so that they could be restocked for other guests. The hydrotherapy pool has some lovely options but overall we found the spa to be less impressive than we had expected. Even the pool eating area is a little canteen like, although the food and service was good in there. We had booked an estate room, being the third category of room up, and found it spacious with a lovely dua